CED Clinic Helps Client Break Ground for New Senior Housing

On November 14, 2006, St. Luke’s Senior Housing, Inc. (SLSHI)—a client of the Community and Economic Development (CED) Clinic—broke ground on Josephine Jarvis Gray Senior Housing at 120 Goffe Street in New Haven’s Dixwell neighborhood. The event, emceed by LSO Professor Peggy Delinois Hamilton, marked the culmination of several years of hard work by CED students and others on behalf of SLSHI and its parent corporation, St. Luke’s Development Corporation (SLDC).

A long-standing client of LSO, SLDC seeks to improve the neighborhood around St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Whalley Avenue. The new building, which bears the name of a 92-year-old parishioner at the church, will contain 18 units of housing for low-income elderly individuals. Rents will be subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Construction is expected to be completed by November 2007 at a total project cost of approximately $3.3 million.

In late September, CED attorneys and students represented SLSHI at its initial closing with HUD on a $2.7 million capital advance. In the month leading up to the closing, the students spent many hours obtaining and preparing the necessary documents, including deeds, corporate certificates, insurance policies, and construction contracts. On November 21, CED students represented SLSHI at its closing with the City of New Haven’s Livable City Initiative on an additional $180,000 interest-free forgivable loan.

Prior to these closings, CED assisted in forming SLSHI as a non-stock corporation, obtaining 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, completing SLSHI’s firm commitment application to HUD, selecting contractors and a management agent, acquiring the property for SLDC and subsequently for SLSHI, and obtaining funding from a variety of governmental and private sources, including Empower New Haven and Yale University.

In the coming weeks and months, CED students will be working on a $450,000 closing with the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, construction-related issues as they arise, and a final closing with HUD.

The CED team working on this project is led by Clinical Professor of Law and Supervising Attorney Robert Solomon and student director Jason Navarino ‘07. Former student director Loni Gardner (FES/Pace Law School) is now a vice president of SLSHI. Current team members include attorney Larry Nadel, assistant student director Elisa Lui (Architecture), and students Tomás Carbonell ’08 and Sara Eisenstat (FES/SOM). Former team members include Tad Heuer ‘06, Shelaswau Crier ‘05, Tiffani Brown (International Relations), Mark Dinner (SOM), Hans Leaman ‘07, Laura Trice (Comparative Literature), Noelle Grohman ‘08, Joe Primo (Divinity), Angela Kühne (staff at FES), and Marisa Rauchway (Boston University Law School).